Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 16 of 86

Zach set his boot on the second step and stopped. The stair climbed into pure black. He couldn't see where each step ended. Cold air pushed down against his face. "I can't see a thing," he said. He tapped the toe of his boot forward, feeling for the edge. One wrong step here meant a fall into nothing. "Lyra, can you make light?" Raven asked behind him. Lyra opened her hand. A small flame bloomed, weak and orange. It lit two steps, no more. "That's all I've got left," she said. "I'm nearly spent." Zach thought. He wedged the enchanted blade against the wall and dragged its tip along the stone as he climbed. The steel scraped and found each riser. "Follow my sword," he said. "Hand on my shoulder. We go slow." Raven gripped his shoulder. Lyra held Raven's cloak. Step by step they climbed, the blade ticking off the stone, the flame throwing just enough glow to keep their feet true. The stair leveled out. Zach stepped onto flat ground and pulled the others up behind him. Torches flared to life on their own, ring after ring, until the whole chamber blazed. They stood at the top of the tower. A cloaked man waited there. A scar split his face. He held a staff topped with a human skull, and his eyes burned green. "You climbed well," he said. "I am Malachar Gravesend. You will never stop me. I will raise the great sorcerer, and no one will ever find this tower." He smiled. "You won't live to look for it." He struck the floor with his staff and vanished. Cold rushed in. Around the room, the hooded figures Zach hadn't seen began to shudder. Their skin split black. Claws burst from their hands. Red eyes lit under their hoods. They rose taller, lean and sharp, cloaks hanging in tatters off demon bodies. "Well, crap," Zach said. He raised the sword. Raven pulled her crossbow and stepped to his side. "If we survive this," she said, "I'm going to kiss you, Zach." Lyra glanced at her, one brow up. "You wanted to do that anyway." Raven fired. The first creature took a bolt through the eye and shrieked. Zach met the next with the blade. His swing cut deep, but the wound closed as fast as it opened. The thing swiped and raked four lines down his arm. He stumbled back. Lyra's flame washed over two of them. They only screamed and kept coming. "They don't die like the dead ones," Raven shouted. Zach backed toward the wall, blood running warm down his arm. The Darklings spread out and circled. Steel and fire hadn't slowed them. Zach gripped the sword and understood the climb had been the easy part. They were trapped at the top of the tower now, with no stair to run down and no way yet to kill what hunted them.